PriceRunner enters mobile services sector

PriceRunner, a Division of ValueClick, is entering an exclusive partnership with Picsel, a mobile phone software provider which will provide PriceRunner with a mobile version of the website.

Consumers will be able to download the free application from pricerunner.co.uk or by sending a text to a shortcode, where the application will be sent back to the user; only standard data roaming charges. Users will see a full colour mini-version of PriceRunner.co.uk with full functionality to compare prices.

The service will launch in early quarter two and will be the first to market for a price comparison website.

Carl White, Chief Executive Officer of ValueClick Europe said

“By working with Picsel, ValueClick has realised our aim of delivering the world’s first free, mobile price comparison service. Picsel’s mobile platform is the best we have seen and our service can now be delivered to almost every major wireless device.

For the first time, consumers will be empowered to make purchasing decisions on-the-go whilst shopping on the high street. The alliance with Picsel represents tremendous scope for all the ValueClick businesses – not just for PriceRunner but for our other companies that focus on driving revenue for brands through digital advertising.”

Imran Khand, Chief Executive Officer of Picsel Technologies said

“Picsel is all about bringing mobile content to life. Our core philosophy is to drive innovation and empower people to change the way they work, live, play and share information. PriceRunner shares this vision, and together we are taking the first step to deliver purchasing freedom to consumers through their mobile devices.”

Gary Goodman, Marketing Director for ValueClick Europe has been given responsibility for developing ValueClick’s mobile strategy.

White Goods Most Popular Products

The sales started in earnest this Wednesday on the high street, but there were bargains to be found as early as Christmas Day morning on the internet.

Price comparison site PriceRunner.co.uk monitored activity in all product categories by its monthly user base of approximately 1.7million(1), over an 11 day period as well as pricing levels in key, popular areas like LCD TVs and digital cameras.

Christmas Sale winners
Close scrutiny of consumer trends before and after Christmas in the seven shopping days leading up to Christmas, and compared them to user data during the four days including and after 25th December(2). It found that:

• Searches for white goods increased the most post Christmas, compared to the period leading up to the big day, with increases for searches for tumble dryers of 115%, and dishwashers and vacuum cleaners both up by 89%.
• Accessories were the most consistent purchases for users, with consumers looking to buy computer hard drives (109%), video game console accessories (28%), kitchen accessories (29%) and camcorder accessories (20%).
• Digital SLR cameras were the most popular products users were interested in buying – searches increased 145% from Christmas morning onwards.

And the losers……
The biggest decrease in searches were for laptop computers (-93%), and unusually, golf balls (-67%), hair stylers (-63%) and sandwich toasters (-57%) all became unpopular, whilst products like mini-disc players and cassette decks proved they are being consigned to technology history, with declines of 74% and 73% respectively.

Online shops discount up to 50%
There were some serious bargains to be found online, with white goods, TVs and digital cameras seeing the best reductions(3), including this selection:

• the price of a Goodmans GDVD70W6 DVD player from Argos was slashed £169.99 to £79.99 – a huge saving of over 52%
• a Hoover HNL7146 washing machine from Currys was reduced from £329.95 to £189 – a saving of 43%
• an Olympus Mju Digital 700 Blue from Amazon.co.uk was reduced from £229.99 to £139 – saving 40%
• a Sharp LC-32GD7E LCD TV from Harrods online was £1795, down to £1195, a saving of 33% and
• a Kenwood KCD1W White tumble dryer from Dixons and Currys was £319.95, on sale at £219.95, saving 31%.

Carl White, Chief Executive Officer of PriceRunner Europe, said

“Wednesday (27th December) was our second busiest day in December, and our busiest after Christmas, which shows that people have been waiting for the post-Christmas bargains. We can also see that yesterday our users were interested in comparing and ordering more products per person – a sign that Brits still have cash to spend.

Ahead of what could be the biggest and busiest shopping weekend this year, consumers can avoid the hellish scenes we saw at shopping centres in the last couple of days – avoiding car parking queues and scuffles outside stores – by comparing prices and saving even more time and money online.”

Additional information:

The top ten most searched for categories on PriceRunner post-Christmas were:

1. Digital SLR cameras – up 145%
2. Tumble dryers – up 115%
3. External computer hard drives – up 109%
4. Furniture – up 94%
5. Vacuum cleaners – up 89%
6. Dishwashers – up 88%
7. Media centres – up 76%
8. Freezers – up 75%
9. PC monitors – up 74%
10. MP3 players – up 68%

The top ten least searched for items were:

1. Laptop computers – down 93%
2. Desktop computers – down 88%
3. Games console bundles – down 81%
4. Mini-disk players – down 74%
5. Cassette decks – down 73%
6. Spas and saunas – down 72%
7. Golf balls – down 67%
8. Hair stylers – down 63%
9. Printer accessories – down 60%
10. Office software – down 58%

Brits Don’t Go the Distance for a Bargain

Bone idle Brits are wasting £88.4 million a year by not venturing out onto the streets to bag a bargain. One in five Britons will not get out of bed to save a tenner on a purchase and one in ten would rather stay on the sofa than bank £50.

The new research out today from the price comparison website, also reveals that one in ten people won’t even bother to travel more than five miles for a massive saving of £500.

The study marks the annual Savvy Spender Day on Thursday 19th October, examining the shopping habits of the nation and encouraging people to think more wisely about their spending.

Men are the more frugal sex

Men are far more prepared than women to travel to save a bit of cash. Two thirds of men surveyed would travel more than two miles to save £10 compared to just over half of women. This trend extends to larger purchases too. Nearly six out of ten men are willing to go more than 75 miles to save £500 whereas just a third of women would make this kind of journey.

Londoners don’t save their capital

Londoners are the laziest shoppers in the UK, with nearly half refusing to travel further than a mile to save £10. Scotland is one of the thriftiest places, with more Scots (15%) willing to travel over 50 miles to make a saving of £50 than in any other area.

How far will your money take you?

The results of the research revealed shoppers’ “tipping points”. These are the deal-clinching distances that the nation is willing to travel for a purchase:

• To save £10, those surveyed said they would travel an average of 5.8 miles
• Britons would travel an average 15.5 miles for a saving of £50
• To save £100, Britons would travel 29 miles
• For a huge saving of £500, the average distance people are happy to travel increases to 68.2 miles

The typical family car uses just 13 pence worth of petrol per mile and the average bus ticket costs just £1.50, meaning Brits are potentially losing a lot of cash unnecessarily.

Savvy Spender Day is about urging people to be smart with their money and to shop around for the best price. Check prices on the internet before you make any purchase and think about whether the potential saving warrants the extra journey that may be required. Alternatively see if far flung retailers would be happy to send goods out to you if you cover postage. With Christmas looming, it is an important time of year to make your money go as far as possible.

Other Key Findings

• Two out of five Britons wouldn’t travel over a mile to save £10 on a purchase
• Those from Yorkshire are the most eager travellers for small savings, with two thirds willing to travel further than a mile to save £10
• Those living in South West England are almost as idle as Londoners, with a quarter saying they would not travel at all to save £10
• The savviest spenders overall in Britain are the Northern Irish. Nearly two thirds would travel over 50 miles to save £500 and two in five said they would go further than 15 miles to save £50

Separately, PriceRunner.co.uk now highlights retailers who are signed up to IMRGs “Internet Shopping Is Safe” (ISIS) scheme, a code of practice that acts as a best practice guide for retailers on the content of their website, payment processes, delivery, and post-sales service. The scheme is backed by the Government and retailers commit to being legal, decent, honest, truthful and fair – which means PriceRunner is again helping ensure consumers can shop and spend ‘savvy‘.

How far would you travel to save £10?

Distance	Total %	Male %	Female %
Up to 1 mile	19	16	21
Up to 2 miles	17	18	15
Up to 5 miles	25	26	24
Up to 10 miles	12	14	10
Up to 15 miles	3	3	3
Up to 20 miles	4	4	4
Up to 50 miles	1	1	1
Up to 75 miles	0	0	0
Up to 100 miles	0	0	0
More than 100 miles	0	0	0
I wouldn’t travel	20	18	21

How far would you travel to save £50?

Distance	Total %	Male %	Female %
Up to 1 mile	4	3	4
Up to 2 miles	9	7	10
Up to 5 miles	18	16	20
Up to 10 miles	25	26	23
Up to 15 miles	10	10	9
Up to 20 miles	18	20	15
Up to 50 miles	6	7	5
Up to 75 miles	1	1	1
Up to 100 miles	1	1	0
More than 100 miles	1	1	1
I wouldn’t travel	10	8	11

How far would you travel to save £100?

Distance	Total %	Male %	Female %
Up to 1 mile	1	1	1
Up to 2 miles	2	1	3
Up to 5 miles	8	6	10
Up to 10 miles	16	14	17
Up to 15 miles	12	11	13
Up to 20 miles	24	25	23
Up to 50 miles	18	21	16
Up to 75 miles	4	4	4
Up to 100 miles	4	6	2
More than 100 miles	2	3	1
I wouldn’t travel	8	7	10

How far would you travel to save £500?

Distance	Total %	Male %	Female %
Up to 1 mile	1	1	1
Up to 2 miles	0	0	0
Up to 5 miles	2	1	3
Up to 10 miles	5	5	6
Up to 15 miles	4	3	4
Up to 20 miles	10	6	14
Up to 50 miles	18	15	22
Up to 75 miles	7	6	7
Up to 100 miles	16	18	14
More than 100 miles	29	39	20
I wouldn’t travel	7	5	9

MSN selects PriceRunner as their primary comparison shopping provider in Europe

ValueClick, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: VCLK) PriceRunner, a leading European comparison shopping service, announced today that they have been chosen by MSN as the primary provider of price comparison content for their shopping channel in the UK and France.The agreement commenced on October 1, in time for the start of the Christmas shopping season.

This long term agreement is the first pan-European deal of its kind for the PriceRunner businesses, which also has operations in U.S., Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Austria.

The information that PriceRunner will supply will mean that MSN Shopping in each market can provide their users with millions of prices on just over a million products. PriceRunner will be supplying MSN with pricing, product and reviews data on a wide variety of products mainly within consumer goods and electronics including clothing and accessories, health and beauty, TVs and digital cameras, MP3 players and laptops, fridges and freezers, mobile phones and video games.

John Brewer, Director of Shopping for MSN across Europe, said

“PriceRunner’s infrastructure, experience and quality, makes them a great choice for MSN to work with. We will focus on technology development and moving beyond comparison shopping as it is conceived today. Having a well established provider in comparison shopping means we can develop faster, in a marketplace that all analysts report is poised for double-digit growth each year”

Online retailing is becoming more and more popular – European online spend is forecast to grow to €117 Billion by 2010(1), and MSN reaches 17.1million unique consumers in the UK and 14.2m in France each month, according to Nielsen//NetRatings August 2006, which places them as the 2nd-leading internet site in both those countries, respectively.

Carl White, Chief Executive Officer at ValueClick Europe, PriceRunner’s parent company said:

“Being selected by MSN to provide their price comparison content is a fantastic endorsement of the credibility of PriceRunner, and underlines why we already have millions of happy users in Europe. With this new partnership we will be expanding our reach to a wider audience and will be helping MSN to provide a great shopping experience to internet users.”

(1) Forrester Research Europe’s eCommerce Forecast, June 2006.

Welcome to PriceRunner News

This is where you’ll find the latest updates from the PriceRunner PR department; use the PriceRunner News RSS feed to get the latest updates. Journalists, bloggers, and customers, please feel free to leave comments and ask questions about any given news story we post. We look forward to talking with you!

Lisa Hancox, PR Manager, PriceRunner

PriceRunner signs deal with online insurance comparison site COMPAREtheMARKET

Agreement means customers can expect unparalleled online motor insurance price quotes instantly via PriceRunner.co.uk

COMPAREtheMARKET the online insurance comparison site has signed an insurance deal with PriceRunner.co.uk, the UK’s most comprehensive and impartial price comparison website – delivering an online insurance centre for customers.

Consumers surfing PriceRunner need only enter their details once to gain competitively priced motor insurance quotes from over 300 leading brand insurers instantly online.

Matt Munro, Head of Business Development, COMPAREtheMARKET, explains,

“PriceRunner has built a strong brand, recognised by consumers looking to purchase online. Early talks with PriceRunner highlighted their need to leverage an already successful online offering with a compelling insurance proposition that sat neatly alongside their core brand values. COMPAREtheMARKET is geared to meet this objective – offering the end-consumer the best price in a convenient, fast and easy-to-use way.”

PriceRunner chose to partner with COMPAREtheMARKET for its motor insurance offering based on COMPAREtheMARKET’s ease of use, and ability to offer the customer competitive quotes from leading insurers such as Marks & Spencer, Post office, Norwich Union and AXA, in under four minutes.

Mattias Berg, UK Country Manager at PriceRunner confirmed,

“We chose COMPAREtheMARKET to be our exclusive partner for motor insurance because their offering is not only simple to use, but in addition, the end quote is extremely competitive across all customer types. At PriceRunner we aim to offer all of our customers the best possible price on all products and services – this has been the key to business success and one which COMPAREtheMARKET measured up to.”

For more information about PriceRunner go to www.pricerunner.co.uk, click on the PriceRunner Insurance Centre link for instant competitive insurance quotes.

***

Contact:

PriceRunner.co.uk
Lisa Hancox, PR Manager
0208 7855835
lhancox@valueclick.com

COMPAREtheMARKET
Georgina Rushie, PR Manager
01733 374 670
Georgina.Rushie@comparethemarket.com

COMPAREtheMARKET
Emma Fountain, Snr PR Executive
01733 845357
Emma.Fountain@comparethemarket.com

For further information please contact:

August One
Nicola Parker
T: 0208 846 8831
E: nicola.parker@augustone.com

Vicki Realff
T: 0208 846 8314
E: vicki.realff@augustone.com

About PriceRunner (ValueClick, Inc.):PriceRunner is owned by ValueClick, Inc., one of the world’s largest integrated online marketing companies. Through its individual brands, ValueClick offers comprehensive and scalable solutions that deliver cost-effective customer acquisition for advertisers and revenue for publishers. ValueClick provides advertisers and publishers with performance-based solutions through all online marketing channels. Brand offerings include:

• PriceRunner.co.uk – the UK’s most comprehensive and impartial price comparison website
• vcmedia – online advertising network and ad sales for advertisers and publishers
• Commission Junction – affiliate marketing
• Mediaplex – intelligent technology for digital marketing, including adserving, email marketing and paid search bid management.

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For more information on ValueClick and PriceRunner.co.uk, please visit www.valueclick.co.uk.

About COMPAREtheMARKET.com

COMPAREtheMARKET was launched in 2006 as a motor insurance comparison site, offering customers the best insurance quote instantly online, from over 300 insurance schemes.

COMPAREtheMARKET has secured key partnerships with Auto Trader, moneysavingexpert.com and other online retailers who have similar customer profiles or are looking to expand their offering to provide insurance services to the customer.

In addition to motor insurance, COMPAREtheMARKET also offers van insurance. It is set to introduce home insurance in the autumn and bike insurance by spring 2007.

CtM is part of The Budget Group of Companies, which was established in 1992, and has grown to be the UK’s third largest personal lines intermediary, through a combination of organic growth and a series of major strategic acquisitions.

The Budget Group of Companies, incorporating COMPAREtheMARKET now has 1.2 million customers and contact centre operations in Peterborough, Coventry, Sunderland and Cape Town, South Africa. It employs around 1500 people and is headquartered in Peterborough, in the UK.

COMPAREtheMARKET is a trading style of BISL Limited of Pegasus House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, Peterborough, PE2 6YS. Registered in England No. 3231094.

BISL Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority’

For further information visit COMPAREtheMARKET